HKUK0361CU History of Art/Visual
Culture: Neo-Dada and Neo-Avantgarde

The course will address topics which are relevant both to
interdisciplinary and international avant-garde studies and
creative practices by focusing on the basic qualities of artistic
and theoretical work of Nam June Paik (1932-2006):
internationality, interdisciplinarity, intermediality, and
interculturality. The monographic treatment of the Korea-born, in
Japan and Germany trained and USA-based while globally acting
artist offers the opportunity for substantial ‘readings’ and
reinterpretations of the avant-garde artistic movements after 1945
(, Neo-Dada', 'Zero', 'Fluxus',' video art
'performance etc.) anchored not least in the culture-techniques
of the game and in the philosophy of chance.

Discussed will be, among others, the analytical tools for
approaching of selected, ground-breaking conceptual, performative
and audiovisual as well as installative artworks that have shaped
and still shape the Neo-Dada and Neo-Avantgarde. Not least, the
latters´ historical roots in the original Avantgarde-movements of
the 20th Century before 1945 will be used both to provide factual
fundaments and possible mutual patterns for the contextualization
and actualization of the theory and creative praxis of Neo-Dada-
and Neo-Avantgarde.

Course objectives include (1) providing of methodological skills
for recognizing the theoretical, practical and analytical tools of
the Neo-Dada- and Neo-Avantgarde related discourses, (2) providing
an orientation into the wide range of the re-usage and re-staging
of the conceptual, cultural and medial tools innate to Neo-Dada-
and Neo-Avantgarde, and (3) discussing the development of academic
conventions and institutionalizations of their patterns with
reference to the most prominent representatives and intriguing
examples from the recent art history.

Awaited is an active participation in discussions, group works,
and shorter written exercises, which together lead to the required
individual, independently conceived and written
paper